The UC Board of Regents convened at UC Riverside on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss forthcoming changes in the University of California in light of the new state budget and impending cuts to the university’s budget.
Among items on their agenda was a “Strategic Plan Presentation” by UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, the approval of a new nursing school at UC Davis and an update on student mental health in the UC.
In his opening remarks, President Mark G. Yudof spoke about the newly adopted California state budget, which will inevitably affect the UC.
“It’s important to acknowledge, first, that the budget adopted by the state could have been worse for higher education,” Yudof said. “However, we have a serious problem.”
Although the UC Regents will not vote on the UC budget for the 2009-2010 academic year until their meeting in May, Yudof said, “The state budget does assume a 9.3 percent student fee increase.”
With greater financial challenges on the horizon, Yudof said it is important to address them in advance.
“I believe we need to begin planning for the possibility of employee furloughs and/or temporary and permanent salary reductions as an additional element of the University’s response to the state budget contraction,” Yudof said.
Birgeneau’s presentation provided the Committee on Educational Policy with information about the Berkeley campus.
Chancellor Michael Drake of UC Irvine presented a similar presentation during the UC Regents’ February meeting, and all of the chancellors will ultimately deliver their own.
As part of his report, Birgeneau showed statistics from a Stanford study in which Berkeley ranked the most cost-effective of universities across the nation.
Nonetheless, Birgeneau said he was worried the campus would have to make cuts, although he is not yet sure where they will be made.
Despite the economic climate, UC Davis gained approval for its planned nursing school. The school is expected to reach full enrollment in 2016, with 456 students in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs.
The nursing school would address a shortage of nurses, which is especially problematic in California, said UC Davis Associate Vice Chancellor for Nursing Heather Young. Due to a lack of faculty to teach, 20,000 well-qualified nursing school applicants are being turned away, she said.
Although the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation donated $100,000 million to the school, the budget will depend largely on state funding, Young said.
For this reason, some UC Regents initially expressed concern before the decision to launch the school was given unanimous approval.
Regent and Academic Senate chair, Mary Croughan said she initially had reservations about establishing a new school during the budget crisis, but she said she agreed on the basis that they have a contingency plan to fall back on if funding from the state is less than the current budget projects for the future.
Regent Sherry Lansing echoed the same concerns.
“I want to concur as long as one of the contingencies is not raising student fees,” she said.
During the meeting, Interim Provost Lawrence Pitts and UC Student Mental Health Committee co-chairs Joel Dimsdale and Michael Young also presented an update on their implementation of student mental health report.
There has been a 70 percent increase in students seeking counseling services since 2000, according to their report.
There has been a 79 percent increase in psychiatric hospitalizations in the last year alone, and although they have not increased in number, there were 11 suicides in the UC system last year, they said.
The Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi said this was certainly an important issue and charged the committee with the task of gaining access to funding through Proposition 63.
The proposition, also known as the Mental Health Services Act, raises money for county mental health programs through a 1 percent income tax on personal incomes greater than $1 million, according to the California Department of Mental Health Web site.
UCLA Student Regent D’Artagnan Scorza said that allocating resources to this issue is important, despite the budget crisis.
“This is a life-and-death issue,” Scorza said. “ Eleven suicides is no small matter.”
In their Thursday meeting, the Committee on Finance discussed the state budget, the UC budget and specific cuts to the UC Office of the President budget.
Among ideas discussed, they proposed implementing an additional “IT fee” that students would pay at the time of registration in order to revamp information technology systems across the campuses.
They also suggested consolidating the UC information systems into two primary data centers as a way to save money.
University of California Student Association President Lucero Chavez spoke to the UC Regents about student fees.
Although many people consider the UC a bargain education, it can also be considered one of the most expensive public institutions, she said.
She said increased student fees would be especially burdensome for graduate and professional school students. Upon graduating from Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, Chavez said she plans to go into public service carrying a $200,000 debt.
Chavez pointed out that as education is being underfunded, funding for state prisons is increasing under the state budget.
“As long as student fees are only part of the equation and not the equation, we would like to work with you,” Chavez said.
Proposition 1A, which will appear on the May 19 California ballot, was also discussed at the meeting.
The proposition, also known as the Budget Stabilization Act, is intended to help close the $42 billion state budget gap through increased tax revenue.
Garamendi strongly opposed the proposition, saying it is inflexible and even if it raises $5 billion, they will automatically lose the first $3 billion. He also said the proposition does nothing immediately.
However, Chief of Staff to the Regents Bonnie Reiss said it is important that they support 1A, calling it a “rainy-day fund” and the best alternative for the UC.
Budget decisions will be made when the Board meet again in May.